Not microfishing, but...

[Al Agnew]

The other day I finally sat down and tried to figure out my "life list" of fish caught on hook and line.  What prompted it was a Facebook post where the poster listed 50 different North American freshwater species and asked how many of them people had caught.  My score was 43.  He responded with saying he'd caught 41, but diversity in locations fished had a lot to do with him catching so many different species.

Well, I've not only fished in a lot of places, but I've fished for a heck of a long time.  So it stands to reason that I've caught a pretty good bunch of different fish species.  I know the micro-fishing guys seek to add to their life lists of species caught.  I don't micro-fish...unless you count when I was a little kid and fished with bits of worm and tiny hooks trying to catch the minnows my grandpa kept in his concrete tank (he was a big crappie fisherman and trapped his own bait).  He always had several different species from creek chubs to shiners to stonerollers, and I'd fish for them and imagine I was catching the tarpon and trout that I read about in Grandpa's outdoor magazines.

But I've caught a lot of different species, some of them very small, by accident, either snagging them or while fly fishing with small flies.  And I'm counting snagged fish, so sue me.  In fact, I'm also counting the chestnut lamprey, which I've only "caught" because they were attached to fish I hooked.  Heck, I'd probably count the minnows in bass's stomachs if I ever cut open one and found a different species!

So I grabbed my newest edition of the Peterson Guide to North American Freshwater Fish, and paged through it, counting every fish I'm sure I've caught.  I've caught 77 different species of North American freshwater fish.  Plus 6 saltwater species, 4 African species, and 3 Australian species.  Just for fun, here is my list:

chestnut lamprey
longnose gar
bowfin
mooneye
goldeye
American eel
gizzard shad
grass carp
common carp
silver carp
goldfish
northern pikeminnow
Sacremento pikeminnow
creek chub
fallfish
hornyhead chub
largescale stoneroller
central stoneroller
striped shiner
bleeding shiner
duskystripe shiner
smallmouth buffalo
quillback
white sucker
mountain sucker
western creek chubsucker
northern hogsucker
shorthead redhorse
golden redhorse
river redhorse
channel catfish
blue catfish
yellow bullhead
flathead catfish
grass pickerel
chain pickerel
northern pike
muskellunge
mountain whitefish
Arctic grayling
lake trout
brook trout
Arctic char
dolly varden
brown trout
sockeye salmon
chum salmon
chinook salmon
coho salmon
pink salmon
cutthroat trout (includes westslope, Yellowstone, and fine-spotted subspecies)
rainbow trout (includes coastal/steelhead and Kern subspecies or races as well as generic rainbows)
northern studfish
striped bass
white bass
black crappie
white crappie
rock bass
shadow bass
Ozark bass
Roanoke bass
largemouth bass
smallmouth bass (this presumably includes Neosho and Ouachita species/subspecies/races) 
spotted bass
redeye bass
warmouth
green sunfish
bluegill
redear sunfish
pumpkinseed
longear sunfish
orangespotted sunfish
walleye
sauger
yellow perch
logperch
freshwater drum

I'm not going to name the saltwater and foreign species, partly because I'm not completely sure of my IDs.
 

[Johnsfolly]

Thanks Al. It's interesting to me that there are twenty two fish in your list that I haven't caught yet. Mostly those are more western species. 

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

Your list, your rules.   It's pretty rye opening when you realize what you have done.    I've done lists mentally,  and one day I'll write them down.   I still enjoy tug, no matter what it's from.   

[FishnDave]

That's a great list, Al!  You've caught plenty that aren't on my list yet. 👍

I had an all-tackle lifelist somewhere.  I haven't kept that updated for many years, so I really don't know what that would look like now, but it did include some pretty cool species from Hawaii, Florida, etc.

I have kept good records on my Flyfishing Lifelist.  Just for the 2024 year, I'm at 84 species.... But Fly Lifetime (Flyfetime), I'm at 143 species... 123 Freshwater, 20 Saltwater.  I know a few guys that have more/way more than me... but I'm pretty happy with my list.  Still have some species I'd like to catch on fly... such as Lake Trout and Sacramento Perch.  (There's more, of course.)